To take the
example of one business in Yokohama called Lastel,
the decidedly hotel-like building exists to accommodate corpses waiting “their turn in the queue for
one of the city's overworked crematoriums.”

At the current
rate of more than a million people dying in Japan each year, public facilities
can’t keep up with the flow of corpses.

Instead
of the authorities building more ovens -- burial is rare in Japan -- difficulty
finding land for new sites means the recently deceased get to spend a few
nights in holding at a place such as Lastel.

Boom market

Although it
does offer full funeral services, the nightly rate for chilled corpse storage
starts at ¥12,000. Rooms, presumably a little warmer, are also
available for families.